Are Wholesaler and Drop-shipper Directories Worth the Cost to Join?

If you've ever sold on eBay or Amazon, then you have probably used a drop shipper or wholesaler – or at least heard of them. Essentially, they supply goods for retailers and online resellers to sell on, usually offering them in bulk at much lower prices than you will find in a store.

Finding reliable wholesalers that sell at low enough prices to retail for a profit on highly competitive sites like eBay can be difficult though. There is also the danger of being scammed by a supplier that sells poor quality or fake goods, especially if you are trading in something where there are valuable and often copied brands – like clothing and fashion.

That's why directories exist. These are not wholesalers or suppliers themselves – they are sites where the leading suppliers list their products for resellers to easily find and buy. The main advantages are that with all the suppliers already researched and listed together, you could save a lot of time – and each supplier is checked before being added to the directory, so there are no scams.

There are two leading directories of wholesalers – Salehoo (founded in 2005 in New Zealand) and Worldwide Brands (founded in 1999 in Florida). Each of these directories list around 8,000 suppliers – both wholesalers and drop-shippers – and also list the products that they offer on their websites to search through and compare.

Worldwide Brands is more costly to join initially, but has by far the widest range of products listed – about ten times the number of Salehoo, the closest competitor.

Both are good though – and in my view either (or both) are worth joining. Being a member of a directory of suppliers gives you access to guaranteed, low priced and reliable wholesalers that won't let you down and could save you a lot of time and hassle.